Aren't Video Games Were For Lazy People?

Remember the good old days when they blamed video games for being the reason kids were lazy and fat?  Kids weren't getting exercise because they spent all day in the house playing these video games.  They did have some killer thumb muscles though!

I'm here to tell you that the lazy video games era is over.  Every since we got the Wii, playing video games has become a tiring ordeal.  I did manage to figure out how to play most of the games sitting down.  The only one I really had to get up for was Smack Down, which I described in my Smack Down the Kids post. 

Of course the laziest of Wii games that we have is Tetris.  Mrs. Stickman and I can sit our lazy butts on the couch and play this game for hours.  By which I mean, if she is winning we can play for hours.  If I am winning, she usually gets angry at me and quits after about a half hour.  Learn more about that at my Tetris! Tetris! Tetris! post!

Now the whole point of this post (only 4 paragraphs in - not bad!) is that Mrs Stickman went out and bought this new Wii game called Wii Active.  This game is basically like a personal trainer.  It comes with resistance bands and things you hook up to your legs so it can tell how fast you are running, etc.  All kinds of things that involve lots of physical activity.  

Basically if you take one of those stress test that doctors make you do if they think you might have a heart attack or something, where they hook up a bunch of cords to you and make you run on a treadmill for 5 days straight, and then you turn that into a video game - that's Wii Active.  I can hardly wait.  Right?

The first thing I asked Mrs. Stickman was if I could go online and download a Wii Active cheat code that I could enter into the Wii system that would make me instantly be in shape.  She said that kind of defeated the purpose.  I disagree.

Stickman out!

Weight Loss, Snoring, and Scraggly Beards

It never ceases to amaze me at the amount of fat people in the world.  And every time I go to the mall, I find that the number of people that have passed fat and moved on to the world of grotesquely obese is growing exponentially.  It really is quite sad.

I always wonder, at what point does a person give up.  When do they think,  "OK.  I'm fat.  I'm cool with that.  I guess I'll just KEEP EATING"?

A few years ago, we went on a vacation down to the Caribbean.  I decided on that trip that I had gotten a bit too fat myself.  It was mostly just in my belly, but a bit in my upper body as well.  Clothes didn't fit quite like they used to, but mostly I just didn't like the way I looked in my bathing suit . . . picture a 7-month pregnant lady.

Keep in mind that I'm 6'5" tall, and at that time was weighing in at about 228 pounds.  Not what many would consider "fat," but I came home from that trip on a mission.  Through militant calorie counting and religious exercise, I managed to lose 30 pounds in 3 months.  Not only did I look better, but I felt better also.  And the best effect... I stopped snoring and my wife didn't want to kill me every night!

After I lost the weight, I loosened up on the calorie counting and the exercise a bit.  I decided that I was a little too thin, and I worked up to a weight of around 205 that I maintained for a couple of years.  Well below the 210 that seems to be the weight that snoring begins for me.

Over the last 6 months or so, I have been putting on weight far too fast.  And I know exactly why.  I started drinking soda again.  I started eating MORE.  And exercise has been virtually nonexistent.  I am now back up to 223 pounds.  

After another Caribbean vacation in February, I have decided it is time to get myself back in shape.  Apparently the calories my body burns trying to heal itself from the nightly kidney punches my wife gives me for snoring aren't quite enough to garner weight loss!

So I am back on the health bandwagon.  I am watching what I eat, stopping before I'm full, and eating a little smarter.  Although I'm not going to go quite as insane as I did last time.  I am spending time on the weight machine, the treadmill, and playing Wii.  

I am also doing everything I can to increase my metabolism.  I am taking the vitamins and supplements that will help.  The exercise of course.  And even as I sit here writing this blog (at my desk at work all day), my legs are going a mile a minute in the annoying fidgety way that people do.  I also do office chair stomach crunches! It all burns calories and raises metabolism, right?

So where does the beard come in?  I have not shaved since I got back from vacation, and I plan on not shaving until I have lost 10 pounds!  I figure looking like a castaway (or Joaquin Phoenix as a rapper) will give me motivation to hurry up and lose the weight.  I guess we'll see.  Plus, when I shave this beard off I'll probably drop another 5 pounds in hair weight alone!

Don't forget I have been doing this while I'm sick!  Perhaps after I win the lottery tonight, I can hire a personal trainer and nutritionist to help me.

Stickman out!